British Lee Enfield 1907 Pattern Bayonet, Royal Scots Fusiliers

Straight single-fullered knife blade, steel hilt with muzzle ring, wood slab grips secured by two screws, steel beaked pommel with oil hole and locking button. Black leather No. 1 Mk 2 scabbard with steel locket & teardrop frog stud and steel chape piece. Khaki canvas frog with retaining loop. The ricasso is stamped on one side with a crown over ‘GR’, 1907 (the pattern) ‘11 ‘18’, indicating the manufacture date of November 1918, the manufacturer’s mark ‘SANDERSON’, a crown inspection stamp and a reissue stamp dated ’21. On the other side it is stamped with a ‘broad arrow’ War Department stores mark, three crown inspection marks with ‘E’ indicating the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, and an ‘X’ indicating that it passed a manufacturer’s bending test. The pommel is stamped with ‘R S F’, indicating issue to the Royal Scots Fusiliers, above ‘R534’, probably a rack number. The throat and chape pieces of the scabbard are both stamped with ‘RE’ within a circle, indicating the manufacturer Remington. The leather of the scabbard is stamped next to the seam with another crown inspection mark and the manufacture date ’17, these marks being faint from rubbing. The rear of the frog is inked with a faint maker’s mark, the manufacture date ‘1939’ and a broad arrow. Given the manufacture date I would not class this bayonet as WW1 issue, but from its reissue stamps it clearly did see some service with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the interwar period. The regular battalions of that regiment continued to be deployed overseas during this period: the 1st Battalion spending time in Ireland, Palestine and India while the 2nd Battalion was deployed to the Black Sea region as part of the wider Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War that lasted from 1917-22, then to India and China. The blade is bright with a few spots of light patination, some grinding marks and small nicks to its edge near the tip. The wood grips have only a few light dents and remain quite glossy with little handling wear. The hilt, pommel and scabbard fittings are bright with a few spots of light patination. The leather body of the scabbard has some surface abrasions, shallow dents and thin shallow cuts. One crack to the lower section near the chape piece, running from one edge of the seam to the near side edge, then branching to run down that edge for about 2cm. This has had the effect of slightly kinking the chape end to one side. This does not prevent sheathing and drawing and the scabbard remains solid, though one should take care when the blade is withdrawn. The scabbard’s stitching remains intact.